Eye of the Storm
by KiraraEX
Summary: When assigned to meet another State Alchemist, the Elrics meet someone who's more than they bargained for. The alchemist is a hottempered brunette who is not only the Elrics' new partner, but may be their only hope of escaping from the homunculi's grasp.
1. The Assignment

Two brothers walked into an office and faced a man with raven hair that rivaled his eyes. The man gave the elder brother a packet of paper and watched them sit on the couch in front of his rather cluttered desk.

"Your assignment today is to go to Ginshale and meet another State Alchemist. Bring her back here and I'll explain everything else then."

The blonde looked through the packet and muttered some things to himself about the alchemist. "Shina Fekir. Lightning Shard Alchemist. Nineteen years old...same age as me." He stopped when he reached a page with a picture on it. It captured the image of a girl with knife-like green eyes and a frowning expression. Chestnut-brown hair framed her face and fell past her shoulder blades.

"When do we leave?" the elder brother asked, taking his eyes off of the girl in the picture.

"There's a train leaving in thirty minutes and another on leaving an hour after that. You can take either one. Take that packet with you; it may be of some use to you. That is all!"

The brothers turned their backs to the colonel and stalked out of the room. "Oh wait. I almost forgot. You won't be alone; she lives with her younger sister. I'm not exactly sure what her name is, though…Anyways, you may go now."

Just as the brothers left to military headquarters, the younger one asked, "Brother, what do you think she's like? I mean, do you think she'll be nice or what?"

The blonde alchemist turned around to face his seven-foot tall suit of armor for a brother. "I don't know, Al. But I do know this: Mustang's probably gonna make us work with her. So let's hope that she's decently nice and that she's not a jerk or anything." With that, the Elric brothers headed towards the Central train station, not knowing exactly what lay ahead of them.


	2. Introductions

"Finally!" Edward Elric exclaimed after a long, let alone uncomfortable, train ride to Ginshale. He flexed his shoulders and then turned to talk to his brother, Alphonse. "Alright, now how do we get to this girl's place, anyway?"

Alphonse made no reply at first. "Umm...I'm not quite sure, brother."

Edward sighed and scratched the back of his head in an irritated manor. "Fine, let's see if someone else knows."

After asking a handful of townspeople, the Elric brothers finally go some definite directions to the Lightning Shard Alchemist's house.

"Alright, let's go over these instructions again," Alphonse said. "Just to make sure that we have them memorized."

"Through the square," Edward recited, "turn left, keep going straight until we get to the bar at corner, turn right, and go halfway up Windshire Peak. Easy."

"Okay, now that we know we have the directions memorized, let's go." Edward and Alphonse nodded in agreement and started walking through the town to meet the State Alchemist.

"Olivia! I'm going up the mountain to do some stuff! I'll be back in a few hours!" A brunette came bounding down the stairs of a small cottage, pulling her hair back in a tight ponytail as she did.

"Alright," the girl's sister replied quietly. "Dinner will be ready by the time you come back, so…umm…bring an appetite."

"Will do!" the elder girl yelled back, slamming the door behind her.

"A-And stop slamming the door, please. You might break it!" No one was there to hear the young child. She sighed. 'She may be a State Alchemist and seven years older than me, but she acts like she's a little kid,' the girl thought as she hummed a tune to herself. 'Well, I suppose it could be worse.' The girl washed her hands and began to clean some dishes that were piled in a pile next to the sink, thinking about her sister the whole time she did.

About an hour or so later, there was a knock at her door. The girl dried her hands and pondered to herself. "Wonder who that could be. We never get visitors around here..."

She opened the front door to find herself looking at a boy with blonde hair pulled back in a tight braid and a tall suit of armor.

"May...may I help you?" the girl asked timidly. She brushed a dark strand of hair out of her face.

"We're looking for Shina Fekir. Does she live here?" the boy inquired.

"Yes...she does. Wh-Who are you?"

"My name is Edward Elric. This big guy over here is Alphonse. We're the Elric brothers."

"We were sent here by Colonel Roy Mustang," the suit of armor, or Alphonse, as she had just heard, explained. "We were assigned to meet Shina here."

"Oh, well it's nice to meet you," the girl said, bowing politely. "My name is Olivia Fekir, Shina's sister. She's…She's out on the peak right now, but I'll tell her to come down." Olivia smiled and opened the door all the way. "But please, come in. It'll take my sister a while to…umm…get back to the house."

The brothers hesitated at first, but with the insistence of Olivia, came in and sat down at a small table for four.

"I-I'll be right back," the young girl said, running out the back door. A few minutes later, Edward covered his ears at the sound of a loud bell being ringed and cursed.

"Damn it! What is that?" he complained. Olivia ran back into the house and looked at Edward covering his ears.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry!" she apologized as she rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment. "It's a bell…It can be heard all through Windshire Peak, a-and I ring it whenever I need to tell my sister to come down from the mountain early…I'm really sorry if it hurt your ears."

"It's okay...I guess," the Fullmetal Alchemist grumbled.

Olivia smiled slightly and did her best to make the brothers feel at home, waiting for her sister to come down from the crest of Windshire Peak.


	3. Lightning Shard Alchemist: Shina Fekir

Running at a moderate pace, a young brunette jogged through a forest. She stopped to briefly catch her breath, taking note of her surroundings as she did.

"Ten miles," she muttered to herself. "Only fifteen more to go." She got ready to resume her run when a sound caught her attention. The ringing of a bell pulsed through the trees of Windshire Peak and reached the brunette's ear. She sighed and flipped strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face. Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she ran off in the direction from which the sound came - her home.

* * *

Edward Elric drummed his fingers impatiently on the small table in front of him. He glanced at the clock and then groaned.

"We've been here for three hours! What the hell is taking her so long?"

"O-Oh, I'm really sorry," Olivia apologized quietly. "It just that my sister trains herself on the mountain and…and it takes her a while to get back sometimes. I'm really sorry, and if there's anything I can do -" Edward silenced her with a raise of his hand, though he said nothing. The dark-haired girl looked at her feet, her mind in deep thought. 'It does take her a while to get back, but still...she should have been back by now. I wonder where she is...?' With this last comment, Olivia looked at the clock.

"Olivia's right, brother," Alphonse said with his unusually echoic voice. "Windshire Peak is huge, and if she trains all over the mountain, it may take her hours to get back."

Edward was about to say something, but he was interrupted from a voice in the back of the cottage.

"Olivia, I'm home!" a feminine voice said. A brown-haired girl came into the room where Edward, Alphonse, and Olivia were located. She looked at Edward and Alphonse with a surprised expression, but it soon turned into a glare that Edward had seen in the picture in the Lightning Shard Alchemist's profile.

"Are you Shina Fekir?" Edward asked.

"Yeah, I am," the girl replied. "What's it to you?"

"My name is Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. And that's my brother Alphonse. We're here to take you back to Central under Colonel Mustang's orders."

Shina laughed briefly. "The Flame-Ass Alchemist gave you orders and you're actually obeying them? Wow, you must be a loyal dog of the military. I stopped doing his bidding a long time ago."

Edward looked at the alchemist before him in shock, and then smirked. "Well, can't argue with you on the 'Flame-Ass Alchemist' thing, but get this straight. I'm not a loyal dog of the military because I want to be; it's 'cause I need to be."

Shina looked at the blonde boy questioningly and shrugged. "Whatever. Anyways, if you want to get to Central, you're gonna have to wait 'til tomorrow."

"Why's that?" Alphonse asked.

"Because the last train for Central left around ten minutes ago." Shina motioned towards the clock hanging on the wall behind her. It was seven forty-two. "You guys can stay in the guest room upstairs if you want to. Or you can stay in the inn down in the town, which just happens to be the hot place where drunken bastards hang out. Not to mention the fact that they serve horrible food that is said to cause really bad food poisoning and that they don't really wash the sheets and things like that. Oh yeah, I've heard that they've had a really bad rat problem recently, too…"

"We'll stay here," both of the brothers said at the same time, shuddering at the thought of staying at an inn like the one the Lightning Shard Alchemist had described.

"Umm, sister, you shouldn't tell stories like that," Olivia said timidly to her older sister. "They do laundry and umm...there probably aren't any rats there."

"But the food still causes food poisoning and it's a hot spot for drunken bastards," Shina shot back.

"I think staying here would still be better, right Al?" Edward asked his younger brother. The suit of armor nodded.

"Alright, Olivia, you make dinner for all of us. I'll go make the beds," Shina said, already halfway up the stairs. Olivia nodded silently and started towards the kitchen. Just before she entered the next room, she turned around slightly.

"Oh, if there's anything I can umm...do for you, please let me know...like make you some tea...or something."

"Will do," Alphonse replied. Olivia smiled slightly and resumed her way to the kitchen.

"She's kinda strange, isn't she?" Edward wondered out loud, leaning back in his chair and balancing it on its two back legs.

"She's probably just shy, brother," Alphonse said. "You can't blame her for that."

"Yeah, guess not," Edward said vaguely, looking blankly up at the plain white ceiling above them.


	4. Morning Mayhem

"Umm...Edward? It's time to get up..." Olivia said quietly as she tapped the guest bedroom door. "Breakfast is almost ready and my sister is-"

"What the hell are you doing?" Shina asked her little sister harshly, clearly annoyed at more than the fact that Olivia was being so polite as to wake up someone that Shina already hated without even knowing him very well.

"Uh, I was just waking Edward up like you-"

"You were waking him up? I bet even you couldn't hear that knock!" Shina frowned down at her young sibling and sighed. "Look. If you wanna wake someone up, you gotta do it like this."

The Lightning Shard Alchemist walked in front of Olivia and faced the wooden door.

"Edward, get up!" she yelled, pounding on the door with brute force.

"Sister, I don't think you should do this," said Olivia.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Shina replied without taking her eyes off the door. A yawn and the sound of covers brushing against sheets came from the other side of the door.

"Edward! Get up, damn it!" Shina yelled.

A whole ten seconds went by without any response. "Go away," Edward Elric replied.

Shina made a sound low in her throat. "Edward...get out of bed...right NOW!"

"Why should I?" the Fullmetal Alchemist whined. He looked at his beside clock in disgust. "Our train doesn't leave until eleven. It's seven thirty!"

"Like I care! I'll give you 'till the count of three to get out here before I knock this door down."

"Oh yeah, like you can do that. Just try!"

"One…" Shina started to count. Edward rolled over and chuckled to himself.

"Two…"

"S-sister, please don't," Olivia pleaded.

"Three!!"

'Too late,' Olivia thought.

Shina kicked the door to the guest room with one foot. The door landed on the wooden panels of the floor with a loud "bang!" and Edward Elric jerked up to a sitting position in shock.

"B-but...h-how did...I mean...what was that?!" he stammered.

"I warned you," Shina said, a smug grin painted on her face.

Olivia sighed. "I told you not to do that sister...You done that to our six previous guests," she said in her normal, timid voice.

"Yeah, well it was their fault," Shina replied as she raised her arms up and put her hands behind her head.

"You've done that to six guests?" Edward asked. "No wonder no one else comes here. They can't stand being around you!"

"Shut up!" Shina barked. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Both of you, please, calm down!" Olivia said. No one could hear her over to two alchemists' bickering

The hall was filled with noise when Alphonse came up the stairs.

"What's going on?" he asked as he reached the doorway to the guest bedroom. "I heard a crash and-" He was cut off by the sight before him. The door was lying on the ground, hinges still on the door frame. Shina and Edward were standing face to face, their noses practically touching, arguing about nonsensical things. Olivia was standing next to Alphonse trying to calm both of the State Alchemists down.

"Hey, brother…" Alphonse tried cutting in, but obviously wasn't heard. "Shina, could you please…" Shina didn't hear him either. Alphonse sighed and raised his voice so that he could be heard over all the commotion. "Hey!!"

Everything went silent. Shina and Edward turned their gaze to the suit of armor in the doorway and Olivia looked up at Alphonse with grateful eyes.

Alphonse continued. "Why can't you two get along?" Shina and Edward looked at each other and were about to yell something at Alphonse when he quickly added, "Never mind, don't answer that. Look, everyone meet downstairs in five minutes. Olivia, why don't you finish breakfast for us?"

"Alright," Olivia said with a smile on her face, already trotting down the hall. With that, Alphonse turned and followed Olivia downstairs.

Shina sighed and looked back at Edward. "Okay, sorry. Guess I didn't have to get you up so early, but there's something in need to talk about with you. And sorry about the door." With that last sentence, Shina laughed slightly and glanced back at the entry.

"It's alright, but what are we going to do about that? I mean, about the door," Edward replied.

"Easy," said Shina. Walking over to the door, she lifted it up so it fit onto the hinges again. She laid her right hand on the door so that it was also touched the frame and a bright blue light filled the room.

Edward blinked to clear his eyes and looked back at the door, which was good as new. He looked at Shina, then the door, then Shina again. "How can you do alchemy without a circle?" he questioned.

Shina laughed. "They don't call me the Lightning Shard Alchemist for nothing!" She lifted her right hand so that her palm faced Edward. He looked at her in shock. She had a neon green stone in the shape of a diamond implanted the center of her palm with a lightning alchemic circle etched into it.

After a few moments, Shina let her hand drop and walked out of the room. "Hurry up and get down stairs. Alphonse and Olivia are waiting."

Edward just stayed at his standing point for a while, thoughts racing inside his head. Finally, after some time, he put on his jacket, gloves, overcoat, and shoes and walked to the bottom floor of the cabin to fill his growling stomach.


	5. Metal vs Lightning

Edward bounded down the stairs and found Olivia already serving eggs and pancakes to Shina and Alphonse. At the sight of food, he perked up and ran over to one of the two empty seats at the table. Shina glanced at the Fullmetal Alchemist without any expression and Olivia smiled at him timidly.

"Good morning," she said as she placed a dish in front of Edward, "I…I'm sorry about how m-my sister was, umm…acting. I, uh…hope that you can… forgive her."

Edward grumbled some sort of reply and started wolfing his meal down. Olivia sat in her chair and Shina merely picked at her food, her mind engulfed in thought. She kept on sending Edward blank glances and then looking back down at her plate, making everyone at the table uncomfortable.

Finally, after some time, Shina put her fork down at looked Edward directly in the eye. "Okay, listen," she said. "I've been giving it some thought, and I've made up my mind. I'll go with you guys to Central—on one condition. You have to beat me in an alchemy battle, otherwise I'm staying here."

Both of the Elric brothers stared at the Lightning Shard Alchemist in shock. Edward narrowed his eyes and then let out a laugh that echoed all throughout the cabin. "Beat you at an alchemy battle?" he repeated. "Alright, sure. I accept, though I don't think it will be much of a challenge!"

Shina snorted. "Like hell it won't. I'm gonna beat you, hands down!"

"Just try!"

Alphonse and Olivia sighed. They were both tired of their older siblings' bickering, and they hoped that this would stop it all.

"Alright," Shina said as she stood up from the table. "Meet me up at Windshire peak at eight forty-five at Crescent Lake. We'll have our battle there." The brunette alchemist was already running out the cabin when she made this last statement.

"Wait, how do we get there?" Edward called after her.

"Olivia will show you!" Shina yelled back. Less than a few seconds later, she was already running though the forest that she knew like the back of her hand and out of sight.

Edward and Alphonse looked at each other and then at Olivia. She let out and exasperated sigh and said, "Oh…Stay right here. I'll be…I'll be back in a little while." She walked into the back of the cabin and rummaged through a closet that looked like it had been abandoned for decades. She came back with a neatly folded piece of paper and spread it out across the table. It was yellow and torn with age, and was peppered with a musty scent.

"What's that?" Alphonse asked, peering over Olivia's shoulder.

"It's a map," the young girl replied. She brushed her waist-long black hair over her shoulder to keep it from falling on the article of paper. "My brother made it a long time ago when he…umm…was exploring this mountain. You should be able to find Crescent Lake easily."

"Great!" Edward exclaimed. He grabbed the map from underneath Olivia, folded it up, and put it into his pocket. "Thanks a lot! You're i _way_ /i nicer than your sister."

Olivia laughed and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "You're welcome…Oh, and…and if you have any trouble find your way back here. I'll help you."

"Wait, you're not coming?" Alphonse inquired.

"Sorry, but I need to clean the cabin. I wish I could go…I really do…but I can't."

"Hey, you said your brother made this," Edward said. "If he did, where is he?"

Olivia looked at the clock silently and then closed her eyes in a smile. "You should get going. You have forty minutes, and…I'm sure you don't want to make my sister angry."

Edward wanted Olivia to answer his question, but he shrugged it off and started out the door. Alphonse bowed to Olivia in thanks and hurried after his brother. The blonde alchemist deeply inhaled the fresh mountain air, unfolded the aged piece of paper, and started up the trail.

center /center 

Shina sat on a smooth boulder at the edge of the lake. Her hair blew in her face and she studied her reflection in the water. "Where are they?" she asked to no one in particular. "Maybe I should have given them instructions instead of letting Olivia tell them how to get here…" At that moment something rustled in the brush to her left and she heard the sound of footsteps. Edward stepped out from behind the shrubs, covered with twigs, dirt, and burrs, with Alphonse close behind him.

"Damn it," Edward whined. "I hate this forest." He began plucking the branches and burrs off of himself when Shina jumped down from her perch.

"It's about time," said Shina as she crossed her arms. "I was beginning to think that I was going to have to come find you guys."

"Shut up," Edward snapped back.

Shina sighed. "Let's get this over with. Rules…I guess there aren't any rules. Just use what ever materials you see fit. You can use hand to hand combat if you need to, and the last person standing wins. Ready?" Edward nodded and shifted his weight so that he was in a fighting stance. 'This'll be a piece of cake,' he thought. 'With skills like mine, this will go by fast.'

"GO!!"

Edward was the first to strike. He charged full speed at his opponent, clapped his hands together, and changed his automail arm into a blade, then slashed it at Shina with incredible speed. She stepped back just in time to dodge the sharp edge, allowing it to only slice through empty air. "Automail…?" she whispered. "Why does he have automail?" She didn't have time for an answer. Edward swung at her again and she could only jump back to prevent the weapon from hitting her. Performing a back hand-spring to avoid yet another slash from her offender, Shina landed gracefully on a sturdy branch on a near-by tree and smirked.

"I was hoping for more of a challenge from the famous child prodigy I've heard so much about, but then again, I guess it's hard to live up to such a high reputation," the Lightning Shard Alchemist mocked. "Being so short must make a hard task like that even harder."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT A GRAIN OF RICE LOOKS GIANT TO HIM?!?!" Edward fumed.

"Oh, did I hit a nerve short-stuff? I'm i _so_ /i sorry!" Shina said sarcastically.

"QUIT CALLING ME SHORT!!!" Edward yelled.

"Make me, short-ass!" Shina replied. She leaped from her roost and flew over Edward's head. The Fullmetal Alchemist whipped around and brought his hands together, transforming the branches at his feet into a three-foot staff. He ran towards Shina, giving her enough time to alter a pile of twigs into a staff that rivaled Edward's. They both hacked at each other at the same time, causing their poles to break in the force of impact. Shina threw the useless timber over her shoulders and slapped the ground with her right palm, creating a cage around her opponent. Edward dropped the broken staff and dived out of the rapidly closing bars. He scrambled to his feet to dodge a blow from Shina's newly-created stone sword. He stopped for a few moments to catch his breath. Shina stopped and did the same.

Shina smirked and ran at Edward full force. Edward pulled his automail blade back, ready to strike as soon as Shina got close enough; he swung, but never hit. As soon as she was within range, Shina grabbed Edward's arm in mid-swing and grinned at him in a malevolent way.

"Now you're in for it, shorty," she said. She tightened her grip on the metal limb and there was a burst of green light. Edward felt his whole body throb and his body suddenly go numb.

"Wh…what the hell is this?" he asked, barely able to move his mouth.

"You like it? It's one of the things I love about being the Lightning Shard Alchemist," Shina said. "I can conduct electricity that exists in the air and use it to my advantage. Like that, for instance. I can paralyze opponents by sending jolts of electricity through their bodies."

"Why you—" Edward started to say. He was cut off when Shina grabbed him by the collar of his black jacket and jerked him forward. She brought her knee up swiftly and hit him directly in the stomach. A small stream of blood fell out of Edward's mouth and he fell onto the ground, wheezing and gasping in an attempt to regain the lost air in his lungs. Shina smiled in a way that sent chills down Edward's spin and kicked Edward on the ground.

"Sorry if that hurt, bean sprout," Shina said with a slightly evil tone in her voice. "Looks like I win."

"Not if I can help it," Edward said with an ironic grin. He slowly brought his right hand to his left and transmuted the ground beneath Shina's feet into restraints made of stone, which quickly gripped her ankles and her wrists. She gasped and realized that she was just as immobile as her opponent.

"How can you move? I sent enough voltage though you to make you stay at a standstill for at least twenty minutes!" Shina yelled.

"I can only move my automail, but it's amazing I can, isn't it? I've got the world's best mechanic," Edward stated, smiling somewhat as he remembered his childhood friend Winry who was in Resembool.

Yeah, I guess that I is impressive…for a short kid who's got an even shorter temper," Shina taunted.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Edward yelled.

All the two alchemists could do at that point was to yell at and tease each other. Alphonse watched the military members brawl from the shade of a near-by tree. To his surprise, Olivia stepped out from behind the undergrowth to the right of the tree and sat down beside him.

"I thought that you had to clean the cabin," Alphonse said.

"I did and I…I have. I thought I'd…come see how Edward and Shina are doing," she replied quietly, pulling her knees to her chest. They watched their siblings in silence, and after a while Alphonse decided to break the uncomfortable stillness.

"You didn't answer my brother's question earlier," he said. "You did say that your brother made that map, but you never told us anything about him. What happened to him? Where is he?"

Olivia winced at this statement as though she had been slapped across the face, and waited a few moments before replying. "I…I don't really want to talk about it…"

"Why not? I mean, why won't you talk about your own brother?"

"I just don't want to talk about it…" Olivia tightened her grip on her knees and rested her chin on them.

"But getting it off your chest can help. Just tell me and—"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!!" Olivia yelled; it was the first time Alphonse had ever heard the girl raise her voice. He noticed that her eyes were beginning to fill and he decided to drop the subject. He wondered what could make such a calm topic so difficult for Olivia to discuss.

By the time Alphonse looked back at the young military members, they had engaged in combat again. Edward's paralyzed body had began to function sometime earlier Shina had broken through her imprisonment. But the two alchemists weren't in the best shape to be fighting. They were reaching their limits, and it was beginning to show. Edward's pant leg was torn open, revealing the automail leg beneath it; his face was beaded with sweat. Shina was beginning to feel dizzy; she had taken several blows and her body was adorned with multiple minor injuries. Both of them were staggering. Shina held her upper left arm where Edward had cut her with a wooden rapier. Edward cringed from a sharp pain in his right thigh, which had been severely bruised by Shina's stone rod.

"Didn't…think that…you'd be…this much of a…challenge…" Shina said between breaths.

"Well…that…makes two…of us…" Edward said in the same manner.

Gritting her teeth, Shina placed her hand on a tree, transforming part of it into a blunt sword. Edward braced himself for impact, but barely had enough time to register the fact that the Lightning Shard Alchemist was lurching at him when he felt a severe pain in his abdomen. He looked down to see that Shina had whacked him as hard as she could in his stomach with her dulled weapon. The force of the strike caused him to fly multiple feet backwards and he landed on the unforgiving ground on his back. Shina realized her chance and used the last of her strength to slam her hand down onto the earth beneath her, creating restraints on the Fullmetal Alchemist's wrists and ankles. The blonde alchemist struggled for a few moments, and then slumped back against the ground, accepting the fact that he had been pinned down and defeated.

Shina smiled for a little while and then collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. She heard running footsteps approaching her and saw Olivia's worn-out, dulled brown sandals in front of her face. She smiled again and struggled to get up, but her limbs would not respond. Finally giving up, Shina closed her eyes and let herself be engulfed in darkness.


	6. Train Wreck

Edward pried his eyes open and blinked to clear his hazy eyes. It took him a few seconds to recall what had happened in the hours before he passed out; as soon as he had, he sat up suddenly, regretting doing so when his head began to reel. He tried to bring his knees to his head to prevent another fainting spell, but winced from a shooting pain in his right thigh. Unable to move for the time being, partially from pain and partially from fatigue, Edward laid back on the couch that he had been placed on and stared up and the ceiling.

"It's about time you woke up."

Edward turned his head so that he faced the couch across from the one he laid on. Shina met his gaze and grinned. Bandages were wrapped around her left arm, as well as various other places, and she was sitting with her elbows resting on her knees. Edward glared at her for a moment or two then heaved a heavy sigh.

"Sorry about that," the brunette said, motioning to Edward's bandages. "Guess I got carried away. That often happens when I fight…My blood starts boiling, or whatever it is." Both of them laughed lightly and an unnerving silence covered the two alchemists. Shina stared at her feet and decided to bite the bullet. "Hey Ed…Why do you have automail?" She looked up and saw that Edward looked aggrieved but not surprised.

"I knew that you would ask that sooner or later," he replied, shifting into a sitting position. "I suppose you have a right to know. It's a long story, so I suggest you get comfortable." When Shina didn't move, he began his story.

Edward told Shina about how his father left Alphonse, his mother, and him when he was only a year old and how his mother died when he was ten. Edward told her about how he and Alphonse used some of the money their father left them to find a master of alchemy and hire her as their teacher; and he told her about how they tried to bring their mother back through human transmutation. "We were so stupid!" he half-yelled. "We thought that we could bring her back, that nothing would go wrong. But it was a disaster. Al lost his whole body and I lost an arm and a leg." Edward buried his face in his hands, one mechanized and the other flesh and blood. "We were so stupid…"

"Ed…" Shina knew there was nothing she could say to make him feel better. Looking around the room for something to help him, her eye caught a glimpse of what that something jut might be. She walked over past Edward to the shelf behind the couch that he sat on. She grabbed one of the books on it, thumbed through the pages for a moment, tore one out, then walked back over to the blonde alchemist. He looked up in surprise when he saw her handing him the sheet. "Here," she said blankly. "It's not much, but I thought you might like it."

Edward took the piece of parchment and looked it over. It was a sketch of him through what must been Shina's eyes. He was in mid-run with one hand curled into a fist, which he held in front of his chest, and his automail hand was transmuted into a blade and thrown behind him, ready to swing at his target. Even though it was just a sketch, the picture was excruciatingly detailed, right down to the nuts and bolts on Edward's automail. Something was written at the bottom of the paper.

i Here Ed-

Thanks for a great alchemy battle. I haven't had a fight like that since I joined the military. Even though I kicked your ass, I'll go to Central with you and Al.

From, Shina /i 

Edward looked up at Shina blankly. She smiled.

"I drew that while you were still unconscious," she explained. "I know I said that I'd go with you only if you beat me, but it's been a while since I had that kind of a challenge."

"Seriously?" Edward asked, still not trusting what he heard. "You'll go to Central with us?"

Shina shrugged. "Sure. But we're going to want to hurry." Edward looked at her askance. She pointed at the clock behind him. It was ten forty nine.

"OH CRAP!!!" Edward jumped up and ran upstairs to get Al. Shina dashed into her room and packed a small bag. She ran back downstairs into the living room to grab her last belonging. She reached up to the most-loved book on the shelf and put it gingerly in her case—her sketch pad. When she went into the entry room of the small cabin, she found that Edward and Alphonse were already standing in the doorway. Olivia was waiting to say goodbye to them. Shina smiled down at her twelve year-old sister and gave her a hug.

"I'll be back in a few weeks," she said. "Take care of yourself."

"I will," Olivia replied. Edward and Alphonse said their thanks and the trio ran down to the Ginshale train station. Olivia waved good-bye until they were out of her sight. She smiled to herself, looked up at the sky for a moment or two, and walked back into the house.

center /center 

"There's the train!" Alphonse yelled over the clamor of the busy station.

"And it's already leaving!" Shina responded. "Come on, we gotta run!!" Edward was the first to reach their target. He ran up onto the stairs and pulled (more like jerked) Shina by the hand onto the train. By the time they had heaved Alphonse on, the train was moving at a slow pace that was becoming more rapid by the second. They all let out a sigh of relief and found an empty booth to stay in until they reached Central. Edward and Alphonse sat on one side with Shina across from them.

The first part of the journey was uneventful. Alphonse tried to perk everyone up by telling some jokes, but no one was really in the mood to laugh. Shina gazed out the window and traced the outline of the diamond-shaped stone in her palm repeatedly. Alphonse stared at the floor; Edward stared out the window like Shina, but after a few minutes he slumped back into the chair and fell asleep.

Suddenly, there was a loud commotion from the front of the train and a blood-curling scream echoed through all the cars in the train. Edward woke up immediately and Shina walked into the isle. She stared at the door and was about to walk over to open it when the train lurched to the right and screeched to a sudden stop. The momentum got the best of her and Shina fell forward, hitting her already injured arm on the corner of a suit case with terrible force.

"Damn it!!" Shina cursed, holding her arm in pain. Alphonse went over and helped her stand while Edward looked around the car; luggage was scattered everywhere and people were in a panic. Some were crying, some were yelling, and others looked just plain psychotic.

"What i _was_ /i that?" Edward asked.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Shina said, heading towards to door. She opened it, only to be greeted by a thick cloud of dust and the sound of people making frantic noises in fear. She looked around when she noticed a stepladder leading up to the rooftop for the train. Once she had climbed up, she looked around over the dust and found a horrible sight. The first two train cars were completely obliterated, the first few behind them bursting with flames. The tracks were all in pieces, and there was no way that anything could be repaired immediately, even with alchemy.

Edward poked his head out the door and called up to Shina. "Hey! Do you know what happened?"

Shina didn't reply. Edward repeated the question and she yelled back, "Ed, come up here." The blonde alchemist furrowed his brow and obeyed her request. When he got up to the roof, a sour look came up on his face.

"Hijackers," he muttered. "They've probably got something against the military."

Shina tore her gaze away from the wreckage and looked around. "There's no way we can get to Central unless we go on foot, but judging by the landscape, we're pretty far away from there." Edward looked around and realized that she was right. The terrain was all rocks and desert. There was absolutely no way that they were close to Central.

"We should tell Al what happened," Edward suggested. Shina nodded and started down the ladder with Edward right on her heels. Once back inside the car, they found that people had calmed down, but everyone was curious about what happened. They were leaning out windows in an attempt to see the train wreck, and some were even jumping out windows and running over to the front cars to report to the other passengers what was going on.

Once Shina and Edward had told Alphonse what was ahead, he shook his head and stated, "If we're going to get to Central at all, we're going to have to start walking. We might run into a car of something that will be willing to give us a ride."

Shina snorted. "A car? In this place? I don't think so. But Al's right. We should get going and stop wasting time just sitting around here. Let's go." Shina turned on her heel and walked over to the open doorway and disappeared in the cloud of dust. The two brothers looked at each other and then followed Shina out into the barren wasteland, not knowing how to get to Central at all from that point.


	7. Arrival in Hell

Shina moaned and fell onto the paved ground. "Finally…" Her legs throbbed and her hands and knee cut on the cement. She was so overcome with fatigue that even the hard pavement felt comfortable. She almost fell asleep right on the spot when she felt someone shake her shoulders.

"Hey Shina. C'mon, we're already four days late." Shina pried her green eyes open and half-glared at Edward. She stood up slowly and walked with the two Elric brothers into the military head-quarters at Central, all of them grateful that they had finally reached their destination.

After the train bombing, Shina, Edward and Alphonse had started walking to Central. They were able to hitch a ride on a merchant's wagon, but that only took them so far. They had made camp in any place they found suitable, and it had taken them four days to get to Central. Shina was more exhausted than any of the three, and the cut on her arm looked like it was becoming slightly infected. All she wanted to do was get the injury checked, meet with the Colonel to find out what her assignment was, and fall asleep on a nice, soft bed.

At that moment, all Shina could do was glare at the office door in front of her. She knew that if she entered the Colonel's office, she would go through a living hell. She sighed and slowly opened the door, letting the Elrics enter first. She turned around and stood at the door, glaring knives into Colonel Roy Mustang's black eyes. It was all she could do to keep herself from walking back out the door in which she came.

"Hello, Lightning Shard," Roy said casually. "Long time, no see."

"Yeah, and it was probably better that way," Shina said calmly. She walked over to the couch where the two brothers were sitting and sat down on the arm of the couch.

"Well, you haven't changed one bit," Roy replied. "You're still as much of a smart-ass as you were last time we saw each other."

Shina grinned impishly. "Oh, yeah, just like you're still as cocky and arrogant as you were back then." Roy made a sound low in his throat and Edward covered his mouth with his hand to try and hold back a laugh.

Roy sent Shina an irritated glance and then looked back down at his papers. "On another note," he said, changing the subject, "your assignment is to go to Terrinia and rescue some hostages. General Sakura and her family are being held hostage for ransom. The group's name is unknown, and no one knows what any of them look like."

"Sounds like a pretty decent assignment," Edward said.

"Yeah, but I've got a couple questions," Shina said. "Why send us? I mean, any one of the military members could finish this, so why send alchemists? And what's the General's family being held hostage for?"

"I knew you were going to ask that at some point," Roy sighed. "We're sending you because the ransom is to see the Fullmetal and Lightning Shard Alchemists." He looked up into Shina's piercing green eyes. "Get it?"

Edward raised his eyebrows in surprise and Shina folded her arms across her chest. "Pretty dumb ransom if you ask me, but I guess it can't be helped," Shina mumbled.

"Any more questions?" Roy asked. When no one replied, He smiled in his usual smug way and turned his chair around. "Great, you're all dismissed."

Edward and Alphonse walked out first, and Shina stayed in the room a little longer. When she reached the doorway, she turned around slightly and smiled puckishly. "See ya later, Flame-Ass Alchemist." The door closed and she trotted to catch up to Edward and Alphonse, who by that time were already outside the huge military head quarters.


	8. Imposters

Shina felt someone shake her shoulders and order her to wake up. She opened her eyes and stretched out her arms. She looked up to have her gaze met by Edward's golden eyes.

"Hey c'mon, Shina," he said. "We're here. Get up."

Shina gave him a confused stare and then looked at her surroundings. She was sitting at a window seat in a large train car. Her head had been leaning against the window to her right and Alphonse and Edward had been sitting across from her. It took her some time, but she eventually remembered that they were on an assignment together.

Edward grabbed Shina's hands and pulled her to her feet. "Hey, c'mon!" he repeated. "The train's gonna leave and we're gonna miss our stop if you don't hurry up." Shina blinked and then realized the situation. With her mind still groggy from sleep, she scrambled to grab her bags and get off of the train with the Elric brothers.

Once she stepped outside, Shina saw that the sky was covered with gray-colored clouds. A September wind blew across her bare arms, causing goose bumps to form all over her body. She frowned down at her appearance. 'Why did I have to wear i _this_ /i outfit today?' she asked herself. It was indeed a very uncomfortable outfit for the weather that Terrinia was experiencing. She had denim jeans and black hiking boots to cover her legs and feet, but her arms were hardly covered at all by the black short-sleeved shirt that she had chosen to wear. Another wind, this one not as strong, blew across the train station again, causing Shina's brown hair to blow in her face; she quickly pulled it back into a pony-tail to keep it out of her way.

Alphonse looked around the station and quickly spotted a familiar blue uniform. "Hey, look!" he exclaimed, pointing towards a man with a military uniform and a cigarette in his mouth. "It's Lieutenant Havoc!" Edward and Shina cast their gaze to where he was pointing. Edward smiled and walked up to the Lieutenant.

"Hey Ed," Lieutenant Havoc said with a grin, "long time, no see."

"Yeah, no kidding. You're here to take us to the place where General Sakura is being held hostage, aren't you?" Edward inquired.

"That's right," the Lieutenant replied. He looked over at Shina, who was approaching the two of them with Alphonse close behind her. Havoc blinked at Shina for a moment. "Well I'll be damned. Is that you, Shina Fekir?"

Shina grinned at the Lieutenant. "Yeah, it's me. I see you're still as addicted to smoking as ever, Havoc."

Jean Havoc frowned in a childish way. "Well that's not a very nice way to greet someone that you haven't seen in…" he looked up as if to do some mental calculations, "…I'd say around a good year or so." He grinned again and patted Shina on the shoulder. "Anyways, great to see you again."

"Yeah, good to see you, too," Shina said vaguely. "So are you gonna take us to our mission or not?"

Jean chuckled and got in the driver's seat, motioning for the others to get in. "You're still just as impatience as ever, I see," Jean mumbled. Alphonse sat in the passenger's seat, considering that he couldn't fit in the back, while Shina and Edward agreed to sit in the back seats against their will.

"Hang on," the Lieutenant said. He stepped on the gas peddle with great force and the car lurched forward, towards where the hostages were being held.

* * *

Edward, Alphonse, and Shina stepped out of the car onto the dry, abandoned warehouse grounds, only to find a huge group of civilians and lower-ranked officers alike gathered around one point. The trio pushed their way through the crowd. Shina and Edward showed their pocket watches to the officials keeping the crowd under control; Shina looked around for a bit while Edward and the officials talked. They were in the front of the crowd, right behind a rope that separated one of the warehouses from the others.

'Strange…' Shina thought to herself. 'Usually hostage-takers ask that the area be totally cleared of all civilians and other people, but it doesn't seem like these guys care who shows up, whether they be officers or civilians. And the boundary line is awfully close to the warehouse…closer than it usually is. What are these guys planning…?' Something caught the corner of Shina's eye and she could have sworn that she saw red water run through the ground, but when she looked again, it wasn't there. Shina narrowed her eyes and made a low noise deep in her throat. Her thoughts were interrupted by Edward's voice.

"Hey Shina!" Edward called from a little ways off. Shina turned her head to see an officer unhooking the rope for her and Edward to get in. She walked over and entered the area with Edward. Alphonse was about to follow the two State Alchemists, but Shina stopped him.

"You shouldn't come," Shina stated bluntly. "There's a possibility you could endanger both yourself and the hostages. It would be best if you stayed out here."

"But—" Alphonse started.

"She's right," Edward interrupted. "Besides, you shouldn't worry. We'll be fine. Right Shina?"

Shina looked at Edward and then at Alphonse. "Yeah…" she said vaguely. Edward gave his brother a reassuring smile and then followed Shina to the warehouse, which was about twenty feet away from the rope that cut the warehouse off from the others.

As they walked, Shina looked straight ahead, not paying attention to anything around her. Her mind was full of questions. She was doubtful about the mission. She wanted to know who would want to kidnap the General and make the military send two State Alchemists as the ransom. It just didn't add up. No matter how Shina looked at it, none of it made any sense.

She was so focused on her suspicions that she was startled when Edward broke her thoughts. "Hey," he said, lightly tapping her shoulder, "what's with you? You've been out of it ever since we left headquarters."

Shina blinked at him and then looked forward again. "I've been thinking--about our mission, I mean. It seems weird…like something bad is going to happen."

"What do you mean?" Edward inquired.

Shina stopped walking and sighed. "I was afraid that I was going to have to tell you sooner or later. Listen; what I am about to tell you about you can't repeat to _anyone. _Not even Al." Edward nodded and Shina continued walking again. "I used to be apart of a secret organization in the military. We would be divided into squads of six, go on secret missions, and steal documents and other goods. The rules were simple: steal whatever you were told to get, don't die, complete the mission successfully…and kill anyone who saw you." Shina paused, waiting for Edward to make some sort of comment. When he didn't, she continued telling her story. "It was like we weren't even part of the military, let alone alive.

"Anyways, I've worked with countless people, some of which I think you may have met, Ever heard of three chimeras named Law, Dorochet, and Marta?" Edward's eyes widened and he whipped his head around to look at Shina's face. She was looking forward, her face blank from any sort of emotion. "Yeah," she resumed. "I worked with them. And I worked with General Sakura, too, although she was only a Major at the time.

"I stopped working as a 'secret agent,' as you may call it, just before the military began experiments on the agents. But something happened on my last mission." Shina stopped walking again.

"We were assigned to go behind enemy boundaries, steal a few documents, and get out alive. The mission went swimmingly, just as we had planned, but just as we were about to leave, I noticed that Sakura was missing. Suddenly, we heard a gun shot and Sakura scream. Three squad members, myself included, ran to where the scream had come from. We barged into a room and found Sakura lying in a pool of her own blood. There was a man standing on the other side of the room, holding a pistol that had obviously just been fired. He was quickly killed by one of the squad members, and I ran over to see if Sakura was alive. She was still breathing, but just barely. Three soldiers grabbed her and rushed her out of the building, and I never did find out if she lived or not. All I found out was that she had been stabbed twice, once in the thigh and once in the arm, and she had been shot in the stomach." Shina chuckled and looked up at Edward. "Now, mind telling me how someone could live through that?"

Edward stared at Shina with a look of complete shock. "So you're telling me that…?"

Shina closed her eyes and grinned slightly. "Right the first time," she replied. "This whole thing could be a trap. Edward gasped. Shina looked at Edward and broadened her grin. "Then again, maybe it isn't. Like I said, I'm not one hundred percent sure that she died. I never found out, and I haven't contacted any of my former squad members for a while."

Edward gave her an uneasy look and then stared back at the warehouse about ten feet away from them. He was about to say something to Shina, but when he turned his head he saw that she was running towards the warehouse.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Edward yelled, sprinting to catch up with her.

"We'll never find out if this is a trap or not unless we take our chances and face this mission head-on," Shina replied. She was already pulling at the wooden boards barred across the warehouse doors when Edward caught up. After a few good tugs, the duo had the boards on the ground and they were in the abandoned building.

Dust and cobwebs covered every surface. Pieces of wood were nailed against the windows and various doors inside the warehouse. The ceiling had even caved in at one spot. "Not exactly the most inviting place in the world," Edward mumbled. Shina looked around. Rotting crates and crumbling storage objects filled the large room. Doing some mental calculations based purely on what she had seen both inside and outside the warehouse, Shina guessed that the warehouse had four floors and an approximate area of three thousand square feet per floor.

"Where are we going to find someone in such a huge place?" Edward muttered to himself. He folded his arms across his chest and held his chin with his thumb and pointer finger.

Shina looked around at her surroundings one more time. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out for the General. "General Sakura! Sakura, where are you? It's us, Shina Fekir and Edward Elric!!" Her voice echoed off the walls of the building. Edward and Shina held their breath, trying to hear a response. After no response came, Shina tried again. "Sakura!! If you can hear me, bang against something!!"

The two State Alchemists strained to hear, praying that some sort of response would emerge from the darkness. But when nothing happened, Shina began to fear for the worst. 'Damn, where is she?' she thought. She was just about to call for her former squad member again when something caught her ear.

It was quiet at first, but it started to become clearer. It sounded like someone kicking a large metal object.

When the sound started to die down, Edward called out, "Sakura! Sakura, make that noise again, and this time don't stop!!" The sound started to ring out again and Shina could tell that it was coming from one of the higher levels.

"She must be above us," Shina said to Edward. She slammed her hand onto the ground. The warehouse floor beneath her changed into a square pillar that raised her up to the ceiling. She placed her hand on the moldy cement above her and created a hole big enough for her to get through. She looked down and saw Edward clapping his hands, preparing to do the same thing.

After they both had repeated these actions again and had reached the third floor, they studied the area around them. The sound was clearer than ever. Edward looked to his right and gasped. "Sakura!" he exclaimed, running towards a female figure. Shina looked over to where he was running. She, too, gasped and quickly followed him. There, almost hidden from sight, was a terrified-looking woman no older than thirty-five.

Her blue eyes were wide with fear and her scarlet hair was matted and partially hung in her face. Her military uniform was filthy and torn. Her hands and feet were bound with thick pieces of rope and a piece of duct tape was stretched across her mouth. It looked as though she had been to hell and back.

Edward kneeled on one knee before Sakura and said, "This will hurt a bit," before ripping the duct tape off of her mouth. She yelped and then looked at the two of them with thankful eyes.

"Oh, thank God you came!" the frightened General exclaimed. "It was terrible! The tortured me and…and…oh, I thought I was going to die!" Edward smiled reassuringly and started untying the binds on Sakura's hands.

"Where's your family?" Edward asked, trying to undo the knots in the thick rope.

"I-I don't know…we were all separated," Sakura replied. "I hope they're all right…"

Shina was very uneasy about the whole ordeal. She narrowed her eyes and began questioning the mission again. 'Sakura was never this fragile and never got this scared. She never once cried, but she's acting like an inexperienced officer. She's acting the complete opposite of how she used to act. Why is she acting like this…?'

Edward muttered furiously under his breath. He was having trouble with the knots in the rope that bound Sakura's hands together. Once he finally got the common sense to use alchemy to get the General free, Sakura stood up. As she bent over to dust herself off slightly, her hair fell in her face, exposing the sides of her neck; Shina's eyes grew wide with terror.

"Edward, get behind me," Shina commanded quietly. Edward looked at her in a puzzled manner and then did as she said. Once he was behind her, Shina yelled out in rage.

"IMPOSTER!!" she screeched. Sakura looked up, bewildered.

"Wha…what are you--" Sakura asked.

"Don't screw around with me!!!" Shina yelled, interrupting the General. "Who are you?!"

Sakura was close to tears. "Shina...It's me, General Sakura. We were on missions together. Don't you remember? It's me!"

"LIAR!!" Shina's face was red with anger and Edward could almost see the fire in her green eyes.

Edward stepped up and grabbed her wrist. "Shina, calm down."

Shina glared daggers at the blonde alchemist. "She's a fraud, Ed. I know she is!" She looked back at Sakura with loathing eyes. "Sakura has a thin scar across her neck from a mission I went on with her a while ago. I suspected this was all a trap earlier. Now I'm certain. Who are you?!"

The imposter grinned wolfishly. "Oops, how careless of me," she sneered, standing up. Shina stared in horrified fascination at the imposter morphed into a young man that, oddly enough, resembled a palm tree. His attire was a black skort and a black belly shirt. Long, spiky green hair framed his pale face.

Edward knew exactly what the man before them was, and he knew that he had to get Shina and himself out of the warehouse as quickly as possible. "Shina, run!!" he yelled. Shina was too shocked to answer. She felt as though her feet were glued to the ground. No matter what she told herself, her body wouldn't move. No matter how much she told herself how much danger she was in, her limbs wouldn't respond.

Shina had barely registered the fact that the man had lifted up his leg when she felt him bring his heel into her temple. A ringing filled her ears and she heard Edward scream her name as she hit the cement floor.

Shina struggled to keep conscious, wanting to help Edward in his battle against the green-haired man, but the pain soon became too much for her to fight against. She fell limp, slipping into a void of nothingness.


End file.
